From my Fantasy Writing Desk:
Making life hell for one’s characters is the job of a writer. I’ve been having a particularly satisfying time this week doing that. I tore to pieces a previous draft of a total meltdown for the male main character. The new version achieves deeper, more persuasive emotions and motivations. The whole arc of this character has been under reconstruction. A big project, but that’s what writers do.
Saturday Event at Red Mountain Branch Library
Saturday, March 23, from 1-4:30 pm, I’ll be at the Red Mountain Branch Library for the Desert Sleuths’ annual CozyCon, chatting with readers and participating in a fantasy panel at 2:45. Stop by to chat, pick up a Priestess of Ishana bookmark, get your book signed or buy a copy of Priestess for only $15. And for signing your books, I’ll bring my stamp made from the design of the actual seal of the Hittite queen I based Tesha on. The same seal she pressed into the oldest extant peace treaty in history!
My fiction fits in a range of genre categories. Priestess of Ishana opens with a dead body and Tesha has to figure out who did it, so this Saturday I’m celebrating my novel’s mystery aspect and enjoying a day with my fellow mystery-writing sisters.
Library address: 635 N. Power Road, Mesa AZ 85205
See you there!
Archaeology I enjoyed:
Horned, Two-faced Figure and Ceremonial Ax
In Denmark, a volunteer helping archaeologists used a metal detector to search for pieces of an Allied plane downed by Axis forces in 1943. He’d helped out in this way many times.
But on this day, he found something completely different, a small bronze, horned, two-faced figure and a ceremonial bronze ax both dating to the Nordic Bronze Age. Both showed stunning bronze casting for the time. The pair of objects are often associated in the region with a twin deity.
Luckily, the volunteer turned over the job of excavation to the archaeologists, who used an elaborate method to extract them intact. I bet the volunteer has claimed full bragging rights. What a day! Click here for
Archaeology News Network “Horned bronze figure and ritual axe found in Denmark”
Ancient Game Rules Found on Bamboo
Archaeologists have found 1,000 bamboo slips covered with written instructions for a Chinese board game dating to the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-8 CE). The rules to this game had been lost after the Tang Dynasty.
The game for two people, called liubo or “six sticks,” is an ancestor to Xiangqi, Chinese Chess. Previously they had found game boards and pieces, but now they can reconstruct the full play of the game.
Strategy games go way back in the Near East, also. I made up a fictionalized Bronze Age game for Priestess of Ishana—just what my two characters, who happen to be master strategizers, needed for entertainment and courtship. Click here for “China discovers bamboo slips recording rules of ancient board game”
Reading List for Mythology Lovers
Here’s a reading list I want to work my way through: Book Riot’s 50 Must-Read Classical Mythology Retellings. It’s painful how many of these I haven’t read. My TBR tower will squash me when it tumbles over! To all those mythology lovers out there, have fun finding good things to read. Click here for BookRiot “Classical Mythology Retellings”